Today is Memorial Day; a time when people will remember those soldiers who paid the ultimate price. Dick Tobiason with the Central Oregon Veterans Council says some people feel the meaning of the day has been lost, because the three-day weekend turns it into a popular camping time or a day to shop the big sales. He says it was originally called "Decoration Day" and only acknowledged on May 30th, regardless of if the 30th fell on a Monday: “And then when the government decided to have 3 day weekends in 1968, then it became Memorial Day and it was always on a Monday, so that gave people a 3 day weekend there's a lot of people not exactly happy about that. They want to go back to the older version; meaning and the Veterans of Foreign Wars thinks a 3 day weekend really undermines the meaning of the day.” In Bend today, the Boy Scouts placed 200 flags in the downtown area. At 1 o’clock, there will be a ceremony at Deschutes Memorial Gardens.

In Prineville, there's a parade at 10:30 a.m. In Redmond, Boy Scouts placed 1100 flags on the City's streets and there's a special ceremony at the Redmond Memorial Cemetery at 11 a.m. Also, at 11 a.m. in Sisters, there's a special ceremony at Village Green Park; and in La Pine at 11:00 a.m., the American Legion is sponsoring a ceremony at the Cemetery. Plus, all day long in Bend at Riverfront Park, there will be a continuous reading of the name, age and hometown of military members killed in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. That reading will last from 8:45a.m. to 10 p.m.